Like pushing peas up a hill

You’d think cycling should be an easy form of exercise. Just hop on the bike and off you go. Sounds dreamy but in winter (spring) you need to put on the layers and then just hop on the bike, etc. But there are things that will try to stop you going fast. The cold just saps out energy – see yesterday’s blog. The wind tries to fling you from your machine. Hills try to make you do a wheelie and fall backwards. And, another thing dawned on me when I was cycling along Sound Avenue, the type of road surface can strip away 3-4 mph.

Sound Avenue has mixed surfaces. There are areas where the surface is nice and a reasonable can be maintained. Other areas are plainly bad. The road surface created so much friction I wanted to get some slicks on the wheels. I am thinking of writing to whoever and asking them if they can make a slicker bike lane along the side of the road. They can also paint one of those nice white lines to keep the nasty cars away! Just need to find out who they are now.

I wanted to do a long ride today. Okay, I only did 64 miles, half the distance of last week, but I was not planning on stopping for a break. I set off shortly after seven and it was still in the 30s. By the time I had finished the ride, it was in the mid 50s. There was little wind to speak of but I did notice a slight easterly as I got further out east. At least that would be behind me as I made the return back to home.

Getting off Sound Avenue and going through Riverhead, the road surface was much better. I went by Tangers and I didn’t realise how long a road that is. When I drive along there, I have normally be scuba diving, and it doesn’t seem like a long stretch. But on the bike, it seemed to take an age. Coming back along 25A/347, the road undulates so I had periods of faster riding and slower riding.

One thing I did notice was that I cannot eat the GUs (that’s plural GU, not someone called Gus) on the way with the double glove layering. I think I could rip the sachet open but I don’t want to litter and I think I would drop the top portion of the sachet as I eat. So I have to stop and eat. I think I also reached the limit of cycling with two water bottles. The GU Brew Electrolyte Tablets arrived this week and they are so much nicer than Camelbak’s tablets. Camelbak’s are too sweet and whenever I drink liquid with a tablet in, I am reminded of the 600k where I was desperate for non-sweetened water. The GU has just a hint of sweetness and is very tolerable. I had one water bottle with a dissolved tablet in and one of plain water. We are still not in summer yet where water consumption increases dramatically. May get one of the saddle water bottle holders. We’ll see.